The Ritual, UK movie (2017)

When your day starts you never quite know what you can expect from it. I mean sure, you might have a general outline of things, but there might also be some events that you have absolutely no influence over whatsoever. Some of these might be very normal like a flat tire on your bike. But there are also events that you hope to never encounter in your life. Like a terrible accident or a hostage situation. And when things like that occur there are always people that rise up above themselves. That can become a hero. But you will never know what you might do yourself until that moment arises. Will you cower in fright or will you do everything in your power to conquer your fears and meet the situation head on? It can be quite easy to say that someone was a coward when you weren’t there. How you might have knocked over that armed gunman or pulled that victim out of that burning car. The truth is you don’t know and you can’t know. I truly hope to never be in such a dilemma myself though. A fact that one of the characters in this film might have wished for as well.

Yes this really is a picture of four men looking at a bunch of stones.

In The Ritual a group of four friends are trying to come to terms with the loss of their friend Rob who got killed in a horrible way six months earlier. To honor him, they decide to go hiking in Sweden, which is one of the things that Rob had wanted to do. The four of them, Dom, Luke, Phil and Hutch have just about completed their trek when Dom falls and hurts his knee in a bad way. Checking their map they are trying to decide how best to continue. Eventually they think their only course of action is to head of the path and straight into a nearby forest hoping they can save a few hours this way and make it back sooner. I don’t think that I really have to explain that this turns out to be a very bad decision on their part. Soon, they are beginning to encounter very strange phenomena in the darkened woods. Weird symbols carved on trees and gutted animals strung up high above them are just the start. It seems that a strange and ancient force calls the forest it’s home. And it doesn’t take very kindly to strangers….as the four friends are about to find out……

And now we are all going to raise our hands and do the wave!

The Ritual is one of those movies that you might all have seen before in some form or another and it has a lot of familiar things in it. I often hear people say that a movie needs to be original in order for them to enjoy it. If that is the case than I can tell you right now, step away from this film. This one has a lot of well known clichés in it, that you will often find in these “lost in the woods” kind of movies. But does that necessarily make this a bad film? No way. What the movie lacks in originality it makes up for in suspense. I did not experience a single moment in this movie where I felt bored. Right from the opening of the film, it has a pretty nice pace that doesn’t let up until the end of the credits. The creepy wood is creating a tense and chilling atmosphere, and it also one of those movies that really depends on sounds. I was watching this late last night, in the dark and in a very silent house and trust me when I say that I jumped up quite a few times during certain scenes.

Why on Earth would you walk in a forest on a “path” like that.

The actors, all of them pretty much unknown to me, did a great job in portraying their characters. The film’s focus lies primarily on the character of Luke, and as such he is the most fleshed out of the bunch. Played expertly by actor Rafe Spall, Luke is someone that you can definitely feel for. His trauma from the past, is one that weighs on him heavily throughout the film. Especially when his other friends are slowly beginning to lay extra guilt on him. The group dynamics and their conversations under pressure are well written and utterly convincing. When it is beginning to become clear that they may never find their way out of the terrifying forest, the tensions between the four men are beginning to rise. It puts their friendship to the test until the breaking point, and it’s done so in a very realistic way. Also, because the film spent it’s time in letting us get to know all the characters, we form an attachment to them, which is important when it comes to films such as these.

Look! Up in the sky. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s…not that S-dude.

Ultimately The Ritual was a very pleasant surprise. This Netflix original, might not be very original, but for it’s intended audience it works. The movie is based on a, from what I have read, pretty succesful novel written by author Adam Nevill. Having seen this film now, it was entertaining enough for me to try and track this book down. If you are in need for a quick fix of late night horror, this one is definitely worth checking out. Atmospheric, tense, and definitely creepy at times, the Ritual is a well acted and quite entertaining little horrorfilm. I recommend seeing this one with all the lights out, and cranking up the stereo. It will only add to the experience trust me on that (and really who cares if you wake up the neigbours in the process right?). I do know one thing though. After having seen this film, I’m going to be avoiding the woods for a while. Just in case……

Thank you very much 😊😊 Well..this film is pretty new.. I think it appeared on Netflix 3 weeks ago, so not really surprised you haven’t yet heard of it. But yes this one was fun…maybe not very original, but fun nonetheless. Definitely recommended 😊

Exactly! I just came upon it by pure chance. It was late in the evening and I just wanted to see a film when I stumbled upon this.Never expected it to be this good. Always fun when a film surprises you 😀😀

Thank you very much 😊😊 Haha, well you are definitely not the only one that is afraid of scary films. I simply can’t get enough of them (lol 😂). But I can also totally understand that you want to avoid them or at least want to see them with a bunch of friends (which is usually the most fun thing to do anyway). If you do, I hope you won’t be pinching your friends to death lol.

I think they would be thrown right into the screen. But now and then they convince me to watch thriller / horror. The last one I remember watching was a film starring James McAvoy – Split. And surprisingly I enjoyed that one!!

Haha..I just saw that in my mind lol😂😂😂 I hope you have a lot of spare screens lying around 😂 Ooh…Split was definitely good. Don’t know if you already might know this but there is a sequel to this film coming out later this year, where Split is going to cross over with Unbreakable. The film is called Glass and I really am very excited for it. 😊😊

Wandering into a forest in Sweden, really doesn’t sound like a good idea hehe 🙂 Sounds like a really good horror movie, though. 😀
Some Netflix originals can be surprisingly good. I’ll have to check this one out, I haven’t watched a jumpy horror in a while 😀

Haha…I think wandering into any kind of unknown forest is usually a bad idea. At least if you believe the movies, it usually ends up in something really bad…that is for sure 😂😂
This one is definitely worth a watch. And it has enough scares in ot to make it very entertaining. Hope you are going to enjoy it as much as I did 😊😊

Hahaha..it is quite awful, but in a good way. It’s a real great little horror film with a decent story but above all some great scares. Terrific stuff when you have trouble staying awake. Scares your right to full awareness 😂😂

Spoiler alert! Talking about monster design, this one rocked! I’m from Norway, and guess which animal you should fear the most in Norwegian woods… The mythology around it was nice as well, the monster’s father did have some very interesting children, but as far as I know they made this one up. Fits pretty good, though 🙂

Absolutely : this entire movie was a very pleasant surprise if I am being honest. I loved it from start to finish. And you are so right, the monster was awesome.
Haha..yeah I don’t even think that I have to guess for this one lol. They did a great job with this one, that’s for sure. And you are right the monster fit in perfectly 😊

So, 4 friends walk into the woods…. Sounds like the beginning of a joke! I’ve definitely seen a lot of movies that seem to follow this theme, but some of them have surprised me in the past! So, I’ll have to check this one out! I can’t believe there’s a horror movie I haven’t seen! 😉🍻

Haha: I had not thought of it in that way, but you are right…I guess it does sound like the beginning of a joke (a very bad one at that lol 😂😂)
Well it’s not too surprising as I think this film is on netflix now for about 2 or 3 weeks, so it is quite new. But it’s worth checking out. I honestlu was quite suprised at how much i loved this one as I hardly expected anything from it 😊
Hope you will enjoy it 😀😀😀

Well, you know how sometimes you just look through the Netflix queue and you see this film that you don’t’ expect much of but you watch it anyway because well..you have nothing better to do? And then it ends up turning into something awesome?? This is one of those films. It really was great. Like I said it might not be very original. But it has some great scares and an unsettling atmosphere and it’s well worth the watch. Hope you will enjoy it Kim ! 😀

Wow! Loved your review! Your intro caught my attention right away! You are so talented with writing your reviews! I always love hearing more about these new films and I am glad you enjoyed this one overall! Fantastic Review as always!❤❤❤

*aww…shucks…blush 🙈🙈** I’m so happy to hear that you love my writing. Coming from you, one of the most talented bloggers out there, it means the world to me (that…and as you are so incredibly awesome, it means even more to me 😘😘❤️❤️)
This film definitely was an unexpected pleasure and one that I really enjoyed. It was creepy in just the right way…and I just love creepy and scary films 😘😘❤️❤️

I do think that a film can be fairly unoriginal and still be enjoyable- so I get what you mean. Although yeah- why are they wandering off into the forest on a path like that (seriously scary movie characters need to stop doing scary movie character stuff that inevitably leads to their horrible deaths 😉 ) It’s really good how this explored their relationships as well. It’s good that this ended up being such a pleasant surprise. Great review!

Haha: yeah I always wonder about that myself too lol. Why on Earth would you go and wonder off into a dark forest in an unfamiliar country. That is just asking for trouble. But yeah: this was just a very pleasant surprise. A fun film with some good scares, and very decent characters as well. Thanks as always for the kind words 😊

Haha, and thank you again. Lol. There are a lot of people that are scared of films such as these, so really you are not the only one. I also recommend not watching this one before heading off to sleep. It might definitely give you some nightmares. But it’s a highly entertaining movie and a truly creepy one at that 😀

I watched this movie the other night w/ my bf & I was pleasantly surprised it was a good scary movie! I agree there were some creepy parts & I liked the twist where it turns from being lost in the woods to something completely different!

It really was a pleasant suprise for me as well. Totally did not expect that this would be such a fun film. (Always like suprises lik this). But yeah it was cool. Had enough tension in chills in it, and some very decent acting too: in short: just a very nice movie for horrorfans 😊

Ah I missed a huge bunch of your posts, Raistlin0903, I’m still quite absent from WordPress…. Great review, haven’t heard of it, and I loved reading Alien-s reviews, I’ve recently rewatched them and was basically cutting the first film in GIFs to save my favourite scenes 🙂

Offtopic – have you seen this movie? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4633690
Nothing to do with sci-fi, but I was really impressed. I’d even dare to say that frankly speaking it could easily be one of the best movies of 2017, easily in Top-20!

"Consider, can the universe be justifiably called infinite? Doubtful. It may not have a discernible end, but it had a beginning and its component parts definitely have a limited cosmological shelf-life. Splitting hairs or not, if history tells us anything, it's that scientists often make very poor poets. We're all just a ship of fools chasing phantoms, heedless of what really underwrites natural law." - Okabe Rintaro